In an attempt to improve the quality of graduates, a group of manufacturing and capital goods companies have come forward to join hands with engineering colleges and universities in small cities and towns.

An industry academics interaction

As a part of the initiative, experts from the industry will visit institutions to assist in improving facilities and to take classes for students. In addition to this students will get opportunity to work in live projects in the companies which will give them exposure to the working environment of the corporate world. The initiative is headed by K. Venkataraman, President, Operations, at Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T), India’s construction and engineering giant.

Lack of quality a serious matter of concern for both industries and institutes

According to Venkataraman, the quality of students graduating out of the Indian universities is becoming sub standard due to the absence of interaction between industry and educational institutions. As a result, students who graduate out, lack the skills that are required by the industry, which affects their career advancement. The ultimate effect is that, industries face acute shortage of talented and skilled professionals.

He says that both industries and academic institutions should join hands to improve the employability of the students. He added that, it will be of great advantage to both the industry and academic institutions.

Manufacturing sector and need for employable workforce

As the manufacturing sector gains momentum again, and the National manufacturing policy being approved by the central government, companies are of the view that the industry needs to give its share of contribution in developing an employable workforce with the required skills as required by the industry. The National manufacturing policy which was approved on October 25th , 2011 draws out plans to set up industrial zones, generate 100 million jobs and to increase the share of manufacturing from 16 per cent of the GDP to 25 per cent by 2025.

Hands on experience for students

Engineering students are looking for on the job training during their period of study, and this new initiative is going to make it easy for them. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeedam University and Manipal Institute of Technology are two of the many institutions that are a part of the initiative.

Bridging the gap

It is expected that the interaction between the industry and institutions will bring down the gap between education and employability. This will also shift the focus of recruitment process of corporate from institutes in large cities to those in small cities and towns.

Majority of the engineering graduates are not employable

According to statistics from Aspire Human Capital Management Pvt. Ltd, an education services organization, there are 320 million students enrolled in schools and colleges, out of which 75 per cent are not employable. About 700,000 engineers graduate out of colleges every year. Amit Bhatia, Chief Executive Officer of Aspire Human Capital says that with the involvement of industries to improve the employability, the human resource supply chain will be strengthened. The objective of quality in education and human resource is the same and so the combination of employability and education will be beneficial for both industry and institutions.

Empowering the colleges

The implementation of the initiative is controlled by M. Anandakrishnan, the Chairman of the Board of Directors at IIT, Kanpur on behalf of the institutes. He says that the initiative will empower the colleges and will help them to address several areas of concern. He ascertained that they will ensure that colleges which are a part of this initiative will not use this as a means to increase the course fees. Anandakrishnan also heads the higher education committee at industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

A pilot programme

The initiative is considered to be a pilot programme, and more companies will be included in the initiative if it is found to be successful. The issue of up gradation of the curricula and industry exposure will be automatically taken into account by the initiative.

A mutually beneficial initiative

According to Rajan Saxena, VC of Narsee Monjee University in Mumbai, the institutions will have access to industry expertise and industry will have access to quality talents at a much lower pay scale than with other institutes from big cities. He added that this is voluntary move from the part of both the companies and institutes.

Why industries are going in for such an initiative?

The issue with hiring employees from big cities is the huge compensation packages that the professionals demand. In the case of manufacturing sector, they are not in a position to offer such high compensation. Rather than hiring employees from the cities for higher salaries, companies can hire employees from institutes in smaller cities for lower salaries, without making compromise in the quality of the professionals.

In the case of engineering colleges in small cities, they lack proper laboratories which cost crores of rupees. This issue can be overcome by giving students opportunity to have hands on experience on latest machines and equipment in the companies.

What industry requires?

According to Anandakrishnan, the industry expects a student to have a minimum level of understanding in terms of concept, the application of technology, the working of machines, and the management of production floor.

How industry will help?

As a part of the initiative, industries will help institutions in upgrading the curricula, which will be in tune with the requirements of the colleges and will provide machines and equipments that will offer students a good learning environment. The companies expect that the institutions will return the favor by assisting them in filing patents.

Many major capital goods companies have started to look for hiring from institutes in smaller cities and this initiative will improve the trend.

What more?

In addition to employability, this initiative will improve the research and innovation programmes in the companies. It will also promote the sharing of best practices in the academic field and will help in collaborating for research among companies.

Let us hope that this initiative will be a success and will spread across more colleges and companies so that the quality of the engineering education and students improve and will one day match global standards.